Links:

Justin Bernier of Plainville, a former congressional staffer, state military liaison and Afghanistan war veteran, is seeking the 2012 Republican nomination for Connecticut’s 5th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Though he is the youngest of the Republican candidates at 36, Bernier has the most foreign policy experience in the field of five Republicans and three Democrats running.

He was runner-up with 31 percent of the vote in a three-way Republican primary for the 5th District in 2010, and pretty much never stopped running for the seat.

Political Views
Bernier believes that a “majority of independents and many Democrats” want a different direction than President Obama has been taking the country.

He believes a Republican can win the 5th District congressional seat this year if that candidate draws a clear distinction from Obama’s agenda.

“If Republicans are going to succeed, it’s going to be because we built up grassroots support, we have a positive message and we contrast ourselves with the Democrats,” he said. “We need to be bold. The people of Connecticut are ready for that message. They’re not squeamish.”

Democrats won the seat in 2010 even though Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley won the district with 55 percent of the vote.

“We’re not showing the differences enough. We’re not showing enough daylight,” Bernier said. “Republicans are scared about their own principles. They think that the way you win an election is to sound like a Democrat, act like a Democrat, look like a Democrat. Well, (voters) are going to go with a real Democrat in that case.”

Bernier said the issues he ran on in his unsuccessful Republican primary bid in 2010 have become more and more relevant as the policies of Obama and Connecticut Gov. Dannell Malloy have taken shape.

“We were talking about issues that hadn’t become popular yet, national debt, spending becoming out of control,” he said.